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Timea
The line of devotees trails along the steep, sandy mountain road. All of them are brown-haired, green-eyed Timeans, dressed in their strange peaked hats and trailing, long-sleeved robes--the hair of the womenfolk looped around the backs of their necks in artful braids. All are here to look upon the Prime, Timea's protector, the most powerful being in the known world. Drawing closer to the mountainside, the Prime becomes visible through the crowd. A Timean man, completely nude, protrudes from the cliff face, held in place by the rock itself, his eyes closed in a deep and ponderous sleep. As the crowd looks on, a priest holds a knife up high and plunges it into the Prime's gut. He withdraws the blade--bloodless, and shattered into fragments on the ground. The Prime, as always, is unharmed. The crowd roars, and the front rows prostrate themselves in the dirt. As long as there has been a Timea, there has been a Prime. The country's historical texts list many of the notable ones: the Prime of Music, the Prime of Fire, and the Prime of Invention, to name a few. He wakes about once in a lifetime, emerging from the mountain in a different Aspect, indestructible and impossibly powerful, as well as inscrutable. His awakening is always foretold three days in advance, and the skies around the entire world turn white. There have been, of course, Primes whose influence has been disastrous for Timea, although most historians can only agree on two of them: the Prime of Slaughter and the Prime of Greed. Bad Primes are looked upon as the result of Timea's misdeeds, although some view these Primes as inevitable; a way of testing the people's faith. The previous Prime, who awoke seventy-seven years ago, was later historically dubbed the Prime of Accord, and reunited Timea after a disastrous civil war. After a year, as always, the Prime climbed back up into His mountain and went to sleep again. Sometimes, the Prime does not come to Timea's aid when He is most needed. The process is seemingly random, although Primes have emerged as close together as five years. The infrequent nature of His coming does not lend itself to an organized religion or church hierarchy, and the people of Timea worship Him in different ways. Other religions also hold sway in the country, although whenever the Prime awakens, interest in these religions always drops drastically. The Kings of Timea usually take the back seat whenever the Prime, seen as the country's rightful ruler, comes down from His mountain throne. The current monarch, King Tipaldi, has never seen the Prime in his lifetime, but remains hopeful that He will emerge sometime during his reign, as the awakening of the Prime is seen as a confirmation of good and just rule. At the same time, though, the king and the commoners realize that the Prime must be kept secret--if the world discovered the unimaginable power nestled in Timea's mountains, there would be people who would attempt to use it for their own ends. While the Prime is asleep, it is the national responsibility to defend Him. Foreigners who wash up onshore or stumble in from the desert are quietly clapped in irons and imprisoned for the good of all. Timeans themselves are a strange people who largely keep to themselves. Although amicable enough, they use other religions as a front to conceal the nature of their true spiritual allegiance. They are easily distinguishable by their long-sleeved robes that cover the hands, which are worn even by their warriors in battle. Of course, their relative isolation does not offer many chances for war. They are open to trade, provided that foreigners do not venture too far into Timea's mountainous interior, where shrines and temples raised to honor the Prime are more common. Category:The Peoples of Nationbuilder V